RECENT SUCCESS

Mark Pearson is an award winning digital entrepreneur who never stops striving for success. Mark grew his com- pany, Markco Media, from a back bedroom business to a multi-national, million pound plus company.

In 2010, aged 30, Mark won the Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Growing Business Awards. In the same year, he also appeared on Channel 4′s The Secret Millionaire, going undercover in Nottingham where he was reminded of domestic violence and community discord. Mark publicly donated £140,000 to three charities, and continues to be involved with each.

Just one year later, Mark was awarded the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year crown, with judges impressed by his profit margins and ability to innovate. Throughout 2011, Mark expanded into half a dozen more countries, putting dedicated sales and marketing teams into place to action his location-specific expansion plans.

In 2011, Mark was invited to participate in Up For Hire Live, a BBC production that aimed to discuss and tackle the issue of youth unemployment. In the final show of the series, Mark admitted that he was so impressed with the networking efforts of a young audience member that he offered the man a job live on air, in a TV first.

Throughout 2011, Mark also became more active with regards to investment. He began actively seeking viable propositions, and invited all investees to work out of the Markco Media offices. To date, Mark has invested in over 20 companies and is involved as an advisor in many more.

By mid-2012, Mark and Markco Media had a presence in more than 10 locations around the world, helping tens of millions of people save money on their online and high street purchases. In the same year, Mark developed the concept of Hackathon London; an event that Mark hoped would bring together entrepreneurs, web developers and investors. The first Hackathon London was attended by more than 130 people, enabling participants to conceive or develop business ideas in a collaborative workspace and then pitch to industry experts and investors.

In the midst of ongoing intense international expansion and as the figurehead for the world’s largest network of moneysaving websites, Mark has achieved a huge amount in six years but remains committed to continuing to save members of the public money.

During 2013, Mark began investing in a number of new exciting projects, including HushHush.com which turned over more than a £1m in its first 12 months of trading. Mark is also a proud investor and mentor to some of Europe’s leading businesses VeInteractive, Paddle, Shopwave, Linkdex, Playlists.net and Calq.

In early 2014, Mark announced that he is launching a new company Fuel Ventures, Fuel is a vehicle to create, acquire, grow and invest in companies. The first project it announced is Trendsy a social product discovery community website and mobile app.

One of my favorites! "I'm a great believer in luck. The harder I work the more luck I have."